


Dangerous Beasts

by orphan_account



Series: Caged Beasts [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Character Death, Criminal acts, Enabling criminal acts, Gen, Heavy references to violence, I have no excuses for what I wrote, Modern AU, Murder, References to Canon Events, Trigger warnings for violence and death, Twisted, Unhealthy Relationships, Violence, beyond all reasoning, references to murder, this is fucked up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 15:32:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were pictures of the streets that Eren could barely remember. A bakery that Armin sometimes brought treats from, decorated with numerous colours, a bookstore with a ‘For Lease’ sign taped on the window, only a vast, dark, and empty space showing behind the windows. A small park, green grass and families with children and pets playing across the field, a rainbow jungle gym peeking out from the edge of the image.</p>
<p>Eren soaked them up, flipping from picture to picture as if they held the secrets of life within their frozen scenes. Armin quirked a sad smile, wishing once again that he could show his friend all of this for real. But Eren’s parents refused to let them outside, no matter what. There were no exceptions to that rule, and so Armin showered his best friend with pictures of the life he’d never live.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dangerous Beasts

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuses.

“What did you do?”

Eren stared up blankly at his father, not understanding the question.

“Why are you mad? I exterminated some dangerous beasts. Beasts like that just happen to look like people sometimes.”

“I’d say the boy’s the only dangerous beast here,” Grisha heard one of the officers say lowly, and the other hummed in agreement. His face went blank, the fear and anger fading into a calm and neutral façade. The dark haired girl, a dark grey scarf wrapped around her neck and mouth, stared at him with the same empty look that was in his son’s eyes.

“Good boy,” he whispered to Eren, running his hand through the blood-stained locks. “You saved her life. Can you two wait outside while I talk to the officers?”

They obeyed, stepping out of the shack and closing the door behind them. As one of the policemen opened his mouth to speak, Grisha raised his arm, a gun held firmly in his hand. It only took two bullets, one in each skull, to remove the extra pieces, the only two witnesses to the night’s events.

When he stepped out of the hunting cabin, he made sure the door was firmly closed behind him. No need for the kids to see anything more than they already had. It was at this point the girl – the catalyst of the night’s events – spoke up.

“Where will I go?” she asked in a quiet, broken tone. Eren reached out and took her hand, his eerie grey eyes never leaving his father.

“Come home with us, Mikasa. You don’t have to be alone.”

He stopped on the way out of the mountains to help the kids clean up. They weren’t going to make it back home tonight, not with work still left to do. He ended up renting a hotel room, leaving the kids there as he drove back to get rid of the evidence. He couldn’t let this haunt the kids, couldn’t let this ruin their chances of a future. If word got out that his son single-handedly killed three full-grown men the police would be banging down their door, disrupting their lives, and destroying their future.

He stacked the bodies on top of each other, using the extra gas stored for the generator to liberally soak their remains before setting them ablaze. The fire could be seen burning from the hotel windows and he watched it burn all night long, Eren and Mikasa watching silently beside him.

“Don’t worry, everything will be okay.”

It was early afternoon when Grisha brought the children through the door to their house. Eren was still silently grasping Mikasa’s hand, her grip as equally tight in return.

“Carla! Are you home?” he called out to his wife, and her returning shout confirmed it.

“We need to talk,” he said as his wife entered the living room.

* * *

“Eren! Mikasa! Are you home?” Armin shouted in the foyer of the dark house, having grown used to the lack of light and life in the front of his best friends’ home. He heard a clatter from one of the back rooms and smothered a laugh with his palm.

“Armin!” Eren skidded across the wooden floor in his socks, barreling into the only person who ever came through the door that led outside. Eren and Mikasa had never set foot outside the walls of their house after coming home That Night. Dad had grown paranoid, certain that there would be people looking for them. So they had been hidden away to become only a memory, kept secret by their parents. Mom had understood, not wanting her son and new daughter to suffer the accusations and cruelty that would surely come if the deaths were ever discovered.

They were a family of fugitives, hiding in broad daylight.

Armin, however, was the one exception to the rule. Having been Eren’s friend since they were six, and his only friend, Carla had not turned him away. He was their outlet, their beacon of sunlight in the darkness, and their only source of contact outside of the family.

Armin never thought it odd that his best friend had gained a sibling, and that they couldn’t go outside and play, or come to school. He had grown up with the Jaegers, a weird family to begin with before Mikasa had joined. He remembered his mom and dad telling him not to be Eren’s friend, or go to Eren’s house by himself, but his parents were dead, and had been for ten years now. He had spent most of his free time with his best friend, and Mikasa was just another addition to his circle of friendship.

“Did you bring anything?” Eren asked excitedly, his hands pawing at Armin’s zipped-up hoodie, nimble fingers reaching and checking pockets for any interesting treats.

“Yes, I did! Just wait a second,” he laughed, digging into his pocket and pulling out a stack of pictures. To anyone else, they were just random ones, very little meaning or memory being held in the still moments of life. But to Eren, they _were_ life. They were of a life he never had the chance to live, a life that Armin experienced every day, and that he tried to share with the socially starved and stunted teen.

They were pictures of Shinganshina High school and the students who attended. Friends of Armin caught in candid still-shots. One girl shoving an entire baked potato into her mouth with wide eyes as she realized what Armin had been doing. A long-faced boy using a tall freckled brunet as support as he laughed. A cool pair of blue eyes glaring at the camera from a stern face, blond hair wrapped up tightly behind her head. A muscular blond roughhousing with a rail-thin dark-haired boy who towered over everyone else.

There were pictures of the streets that Eren could barely remember. A bakery that Armin sometimes brought treats from, decorated with numerous colours, a bookstore with a ‘For Lease’ sign taped on the window, only a vast, dark, and empty space showing behind the windows. A small park, green grass and families with children and pets playing across the field, a rainbow jungle gym peeking out from the edge of the image.

Eren soaked them up, flipping from picture to picture as if they held the secrets of life within their frozen scenes. Armin quirked a sad smile, wishing once again that he could show his friend all of this for real. But Eren’s parents refused to let them outside, no matter what. There were no exceptions to that rule, and so Armin showered his best friend with pictures of the life he’d never live.

Or so they had thought. Until one day their lives were shattered once again by death.

“Mom!” Eren screamed, his voice cracking as he reached pitches he didn’t think were humanly possible. But it didn’t matter how loud he screamed at her, she couldn’t hear him. She merely swung slightly side-to-side, her blank eyes staring ahead as she twirled in a slow circle. The rope around her neck held her aloft, her head tilted at a disturbing angle, her hands and feet trying to reach the floor and failing.

There was no note, no warning, and no reason. There was nothing to explain why his mother was no longer there. His father was also gone, his belongings packed and missing. All that remained were Eren and Mikasa, clutching to each other as a police officer, Sergeant Hannes, escorted them from the house.


End file.
